A Displaced New Yorker’s Yankee Blog
Posted by admin on February 20, 2009 under Uncategorized | 
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Sorry, that I haven’t been around much this week. Been super busy with the day job and not to mention the whole A-Rod story has really soured me.
I should be back in full force soon, however until then check out Stilleto Sports. It’s a girls guide to sports, but I’ll admt that I’ve had some good laughs over there. It’s definitely a very unique and cool look at sports.
Posted by admin on February 18, 2009 under Alex Rodriguez, Steroids | Be the First to Comment
Really not sure, how I feel about Alex Rodriguez’s statment and answers yesterday so I’m going to file this under almsot wordless Wednesday.
Posted by admin on February 16, 2009 under Alex Rodriguez, Steroids | Be the First to Comment
It seems that things so far have been realtively quiet in Yankee camp. The biggest issue so far has been C.C. Sabathia coming to camp with facial hair. However, everything is going to change when Alex Rodriguez shows up in Tampa tomorrow. He’s promised to speak to the media and it should be interesting.
Here’s a few questions that I’d like the press to ask. Some, I have a feeling they’ll ask and others I don’t think they have the balls to ask.
1. Did you use steroids as a Yankee?
2. Should you be in the Hall of Fame?
3. Are you thinking about giving money back to all of the fans who paid to see you play, bought your jerseys, etc?
4. What would you like to tell all the players who didn’t cheat and use steroids?
5. Should the comissioner penalize you?
6. Should your stats from those three years in Texas just be zero’ed out?
7. Should the comissioner just put a huge asterix next to your stats?
8. The whole era’s stats?
9. Why should Yankee fans ever root for you again?
10. What other of my heroes were juiced?
Posted by admin on February 14, 2009 under Yankees Clothes | Be the First to Comment
Yeah, I know it’s a little bit early. In fact, I’m pretty sure everyone is thinking about another holiday today. However, I got these in an email today from the MLB Shop and thought I would share with you a couple of the ones I’m thinking about buying this year. Normally, I wait to a week or so ahead of time and have to pay for rush shipping. This year, I’m going to try to buy ahead of time…I swear!
Yankees Kelly Green T-Shirt that you can customize. I like being able to customize it. I can put my own last name on it and don’t have to worry about the player suddenly being associated with steroids down the road because trust me I’ve never used roids.
New York Yankees St. Patty’s Fatty Hat. I don’t know how/why they through in fatty there, but I like this hat…not that I don’t already have enough Yankee hats.
There’s a few more here, that I’m thinking about. But we’ll see.
Posted by admin on February 13, 2009 under Ramblings | 2 Comments to Read
I’ve been reading blogs about the Yankees for a pretty long time now and I can’t help but notice angry, upset and disgruntled the comments on the blog sound. They’re supposed to be Yankee fans but seem to hate every player, member of management, etc.
I’m not just talking about A-Roid. I’ve noticed this trend well before he’s use of steroids came out last weekend. I’ve seen visicous attacks on everybody from Derek Jeter to Jose Molina. Some of the commenters have some good points, but seriously negative comments must outweigh positive comments 10-1.
I’ll admit that I don’t have time to read every Yankee blog, but are we that upset that we’ve become a viscious attack dogs and will attack any player because the Yankees didn’t make it to the playoffs last year and haven’t won it all since the World Series against the Mets in 2000?
I’m not saying we should all start being lovey, dovey, but seriously, I get tired of reading all of the negative come backs. Please note I reserve the right to change my mind if three weeks into the season, the Yankees look like they’re going to under perform again.
Awesome photo from New Stadium Insider, a good Yankee blog but not one of the ones I’m talking about in my rant here.
Posted by admin on February 12, 2009 under Book Reviews | Be the First to Comment
I thought I would take a break from the Alex Rodriguez to write about a different baseball scandal. Luckily, this one is fictional. I just finished reading The Entitled by Frank Deford. It’s not exactly about the Yankees, but it is about baseball which almost always means something that I want to read. I thought I would do a quick review of the book before I go back to the very real steroids scandal.
The story is about a manager of the Cleveland Indians who is about to be fired until the day he’s going to be let go, the story is that star outfielder on the team was arrested and charged with rape.
The manager, Howie Travler has spent years struggling through the minors as a player, then a manager. He’s finally given a shot at the big leages as a manager. The team has one goodyear, but when the team starts to go downhill, the ownership starts looking to fire the manager.
The star player, Jay Alczar is the player who every thing comes naturally for – playing baseball, women, etc. Howie has had to mange his sometimes diva like personality on the field and now he’s forced to help manage him through this crisis to save his job.
It’s a quick and light read, perfect for between reading the Yankee Years and the Selena Roberts book about A-Rod that comes out later this year.
Overall, I liked it. It seemed to be a very realistic portrayal of the managers on and off the field. There were a couple of pretty wild things that just seemed to unreal to me, but for the most part it was a very engaging read.
Posted by admin on February 11, 2009 under Alex Rodriguez, Steroids | Be the First to Comment
A-Rod, A-Fraud or A-Roid, whatever you want to call him, was just one named on the list. There were 103 other players on that list and right now, anyone and everyone could be on that list that played then. And it seems like anyone and everyone, sports commentators, bloggers and newspaper reporters are trying to figure out who could be on that list. Count me in as one of those.
Looking for possible suspects, I started scanning the home run leaders in 2001-2003 when A-Rod admitted that he used “banned substances.” A lot of the home run hitters those years have already been associated in one way or another with steroids: Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmerio and of course Barry Bonds. It doesn’t leave a lot of hitters that haven’t been confirmed as steroid users…yet.
Javy Lopez hit a very impressive 43 home runs in 2003. He never hit that much in any other year that he’s played. Plus, since no one ever suspected A-Rod before, who the hell would suspect Javy. Makes him a perfect suspect. File Shawn Green in that same category after hitting so many home runs in 2001 and 2002. Who would’ve ever thought hitting a lot of home runs would make you a suspect.
Or what about in 2004. Just because A-Rod supposedly stopped taking roids in 2003, MLB’s rules didn’t get stricter until 2005. As a Yankee fan living in Chicago and going to games at U.S. Cellular, I couldn’t help but noticing that there were two White Sox players among the home run leaders that year. Paul Konerko and Jim Thome. Mere coincidence?
Also in 2004, Adrian Beltre hit 48 home runs. He’s never hit that many in any year before or after. Makes him look pretty guilty if you ask me.
Albert Puljos is one of the men consistently leading in home runs, a man that many are now looking at as the next home run king that hasn’t been tainted by steroids.They’re now describing him as the player with the natural ability, the same way they were describing A-Rod just a little week ago.
And of course you can’t forget about the pitchers. We already know about Andy Pettitte and Roger Clemmens, but what about Perdro Martinez and and Randy Johnson. As a Yankee fan, I’d love to see both of them tainted, but it’s not that simple, even if you do look at how their playing abilities have greatly decreased after 2003.
Then I started looking at what players were on the Yankees past and present that may have used steroids. You don’t want to believe it was someone on “your” team, but if twenty or just five percent of the players were juiced, which players was it on the Yankees?
The fan favorite – Shane Spencer? He played on the Rangers when the culture was so “loosey-goosey” (A-Rod’s words) not mine. Or what about one of the newest names on the Yankees, Mark Texiera? He also played on the Rangers back then. Then there was Alfonso Soriano while he was on the Yankees, he sure hit a lot of home runs back then and hasn’t done the same since 2006.
Of course, this is all pure speculations. You just can’t base it on a drop in stats. A-Rod’s decrease in home runs 2004 could’ve been because he left the hitter friendly Rangers stadium or that there was all the pressure that came with playing in the bright lines of New York. The only way we’ll really know who used is if they release the whole list. But then that’s only the players who were stupid enough to get caught. What about all of the others who were smart enough to stop when the heat started to get turned on.
It’s really impossible to speculate. There’s just too many factors that make a player look innocent and guilty. As a fan, I just hope that the players on the list aren’t players like Derek Jeter or Mariano Rivera. But also as a fan, I’m feed up. It seems like a safe bet that they were all dirty and just put a huge asterix next to all of the stats.
Posted by admin on February 9, 2009 under Alex Rodriguez | Be the First to Comment
I’m really not sure how I feel about about Alex Rodriguez’s admission to using a “banned substance” and I don’t know if I’ll have a concrete feeling about him again. I had a lot of mixed emotions as I watched his interview on ESPN with Peter Gammons and now as I write this.
I didn’t think he would admit that he used anything. I expected him to take the route of Roger Clemmens or Mark McGwire and deny everything. I want to say that makes A-Rod a better man and I have to respect that…or it might just be that he thinks he still has a chance of getting into the Hall Of Fame since he came clean. And maybe he does have a right to prove that he still belongs in the Hall.
I was hoping to hear reasons on why he would do such a thing, instead there was definitely times he sounded like a politician. Not as bad as Rod Blagojevich, but he’s definitely no Obama. A-Rod made a lot of excuses. It was like one minute he was taking responsibility, then the next he was blaming the culture of baseball at the time, the pressure to perform, being young and stupid to one hundred plus degree weather in Texas.
Then he goes off on a tagent and starts to blame the Sports Illustrated reporter, Selena Roberts. It was like he was blaming her for the story coming out….and basically calling her psycho for stalking him, when she was just doing her job, bringing a story to light, that the public definitely needed to know about.
I’ll admit, that I’m still not on A-Rod’s side yet. But at least, I’m beginning to feel for him and think that maybe he’s not the worse person ever. I would like to see if he backs up his words with actions and does go out and speak to the youth about steroids, goes into poor communities in effort to do “real good.” I don’t know if it would make up for it, but at least it would be a start.
The cynical Yankee fan says that he’ll be forgiven if the Yankees start the season on a winning streak and permanently pardoned if the Yankees win the world series this year.
Posted by admin on February 7, 2009 under Alex Rodriguez | Read the First Comment
I’m sure by now, you’ve heard that earlier today Sports Illustrated broke the story that Alex Rodriguez tested positive for steroids in 2003 when he was playing with the Texas Rangers.
Half of me is angry that another one of my heroes has been tainted. The other half wants A-Rod to get back on the juice!I really want to see what he could do in October while all hoped up on roids.
All this time, we’ve been blaming the intense media spotlight for his drop in stats from 2003 to the 2004 season when he started with the Yankees. We all owe a major apology to the media, the real reason for his decrease in productivity was that he stopped taking steroids.
I’d really hate to be A-Rod at a game now. There’s so many chants to choose from A-Fraud, A-Rod I want my money back (one of my personal favorites after too many drinks when the Yankees are losing) and who knows what chant they’re going to come up with the steroids. And that’ll be just from the Yankee fans, I’d hate to see what it’ll be like in Boston.
Just the other day I was listening to Sports Center and after the story of Barry Bonds one of the commentators said that he can’t wait to see A-Rod break the record because he was steroid free. Looks like he spoke a little too soon! I’ll admit that I’m kind of pissed about it. Using steroids is cheating and I thought he was above that. I was motivated by his work ethnic, now I”m thinking that I should take to cheating and cutting corners.
I heard some talk about what will come because the test results were supposed to be confendital information. A. I think it’ll come out that the information was leaked, stolen or from a rogue employee that’s now conveniently fired. B. It really doesn’t matter. Information like this shouldn’t be kept secret. The fans who pay these guy’s saleries from ticket sales to buying their jerseys deserve to know who was cheating and who wasn’t.
Which reminds me, I’m going to head off to Finish Line and see if they’ll let me return the Rodriguez jersey that I bought in 2004.
Posted by admin on February 6, 2009 under Hot Stove | Be the First to Comment
All week long, you can’t go anywhere without hearing about Joe Torre and The Yankee Years book. He was every where from on Late Night with David Letter to All Things Considered on NPR. I wasn’t going to buy it, but I finally gave in and ordered my copy from Amazon.
I’m not sure exactly why I bought. I definitely don’t have the time to read a 500 page book right now. I’ll admit that I’m curious about what happened between Torre and the Yankees in October of 2007 and why he didn’t return as manager. I want to read about all of the stories about A-Rod. However, I would like to know the full story, how it’s written in context.
I’ve been reading all of the blogs and it seems like many are taking a very negative view on Torre and the book. They complain about everything from Torre breaking the dugout code of silence to this being a sign that he’s turned his back on New York.
I don’t want to believe any of it. Joe Torre is still the stoic manager that led the Yankees to four world series championships and I grew up loving like he was my grandfather.
I’m going to try to read the book as quick as I can and I’ll have my review with my own opinion once I’m done.
